Bacon and Gruyère Green Bean Casserole
Updated Nov. 1, 2023
- Total Time
- 1¼ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 2tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2pounds green beans, trimmed and broken in half
- Salt, to taste
- 6slices bacon
- 2shallots, finely chopped (about ½ cup)
- ½pound mushrooms, sliced
- 1cup crème fraîche
- ⅓cup heavy cream
- 6ounces Gruyère, shredded (1½ cups)
- 2teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)
- ½cup bread crumbs (or crumbled Ritz crackers)
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
358 calories; 27 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 14 grams protein; 563 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered by
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Use 1 tablespoon butter to grease a 2- to 2½-quart baking dish or gratin.
- Step 2
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt generously and add green beans. Boil for 5 minutes and transfer to a bowl of cold water. Drain on a kitchen towel.
- Step 3
Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add bacon. Cook until crispy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to paper towels and let cool.
- Step 4
Discard all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in pan and return to heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and turn heat up slightly. Cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of pan, until mushrooms begin to sweat. Add salt to taste and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Step 5
In a large bowl whisk together crème fraîche and cream. Stir in Gruyère. Add green beans, mushrooms and shallots, and marjoram or thyme. Crumble in bacon. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir everything together until beans are well coated. Transfer to baking dish.
- Step 6
Melt remaining butter and toss with bread crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over top of casserole. Bake 30 minutes, until bread crumbs are golden brown and casserole is bubbling. Remove from heat, let sit until bubbles subside, and serve.
Private Notes
Comments
Here in the Midwest, this recipe has one serious mistake. (Insert smiley face icon here!) This is the one time of the year many of us ever eat/have in our kitchen those very processed things called "French Fried Onions." Ritz crackers? Bread crumbs? Why even bother to make this!?!
A few notes:
6 oz grated Gruyère made 2 cups for me, not 1.5 cups.
Creme fraîche at my supermarket comes in 7 oz containers, so I add 1 oz (2 Tbsp) sour cream to make up the difference.
Next time I'm going to use a salad spinner to dry the cooked beans before using a towel for the last bit.
I suggest cutting the beans to 1"-2" lengths instead of just in half: easier to eat.
The recipe filled a 3-qt pot and would not have fit a 2.5-qt pot (and certainly not a 2-qt pot).
My mother's recipe, in Ohio 50 years ago, did not contain canned soup or canned mushrooms or ritz crackers. It was made from scratch with fresh mushrooms, fresh frenched string beans, a cream sauce made with cheddar cheese, no bacon, and crunchy water chestnuts. A delicious recipe, that the food companies ruined so no one even remembers what the original was! Ms. Shulman has gotten us most of the way back to the original. Thank you, but I'll still make my mother's version.
I make this every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas at the request of my family. It’s an absolutely delicious recipe, but over time I’ve made some modifications: - I add crispy fried onions to the casserole and as a topping - Shred an extra 4-5 oz of Gruyère and use it as part of the topping - If I don’t have enough creme fraiche, I’ll supplement with full fat greek yogurt It’s a 10/10. We Will never go back to the canned version.
I’ve been making this recipe for several years now. One big flaw that can be remedied. The Gruyère will split and leave you with lumpy cheese and a layer of fat on top. FIX: Buy a bag of sodium citrate on Amazon and add a tsp or two. It’s what they use to make American cheese melt well. It’ll turn this into something just as creamy as the Campbells cream-of-mushroom version, with better flavor. Other tweaks / +1s to other suggestions: 1) Sour cream works just fine in place of creme fraiche. It’s also pretty easy to make your own creme fraiche: combine some heavy cream with a spoonful of yogurt or some buttermilk and let it sit at room temperature for ~12 hours until it thickens and gets tangy. 2) If I didn’t have a Celiac in the house I would use French onions. If that’s too low brow for you, you can make your own fried shallots. 3) I could only find a 5 oz block of Gruyère this year so I supplemented with parmigiano reggiano because I refuse to skimp on cheese. Worked fine
Not being a fan of gruyere, I substitute it for smoke ghouda. Additionally, when making the cream mixture, I do: 4 T butter, 1 T better than boullion chicken base, S&P, dash of worcestershire sauce, 1 T dijon and melt it all together. Then, add 2 C sour cream and 3/4 C cream along with shredded ghouda. It really adds a depth of flavor that the original recipe, to me, was lacking.